letter from the editors
& contributors
I’m in the office flipping through old comic books and thinking about the future,
having just decided that in September I’ll be moving to a city I’ve never been to.
The future used to be in Toronto, but now it’s somewhere else. As someone who
sees the world through anxiety-coloured glasses, the future tends to mutate into
terrifying monsters and worst-case scenarios. But this week, working on this issue
(which is a nerd’s dream come true), I’ve been feeling like I’m living in the best of
all possible worlds.
We decided to go with a retro sci-fi aesthetic for this magazine, and it’s been
interesting to look back at projected versions of the future from different times.
I’ve been imagining future versions of myself, knowing the countless days spent in
this run-down office listening to Dr. Horrible and picking out comic book motifs for
page numbers and arguing about tracking and kerning are always going to be
lurking in the background of those futures. I know the way we lay out pages and
the technology we use will someday seem incredibly old-school, but this is where
we’re starting. This has been my community for four years, and I don’t want it to
end. But sitting in the office listening to our ridiculously talented first-years plan and
scheme for next year, I’m struck by how interesting their vision of the paper’s future
is—and how they’re already doing things we couldn’t have anticipated.
It’s rare that you can sense the future in what you are doing now, but that’s
how it felt making this magazine. Over the last two years, we’ve been working
to reinvent The Strand from the ground up—to make it a critical voice of campus,
to overhaul our design, to have more long-term content—three goals that come
together in this issue. It’s simultaneously scary and exciting to watch something that
you’ve put so much of yourself into take on a life of its own and have a future
without you. But I really, really like the way the future looks from here. -P.H.

Graduation Banquet 1T3, Monday April 8th in Burwash.
Doors open at 6:30, dinner at 7,
Reception and After Party to Follow
If you have questions or concerns, please email
Savannah Sloat at gradbanquet@vusac.ca

Sustainability and Green Reps present: Rewire Seminar
Wednesday, March 20th
8pm-9pm EM302
Come learn how to make easy changes in your
life to be more ecofriendly!

Vic Variety Show
March 29th
8:00-10:00 (doors open at 7:30)
$5 ($4 in advance in VUSAC)

the end is extremely fucking nigh
re-reading the politics of gender, Race, & disability
In the apocalypse
By Pauline Holdsworth & Johanna Lewis
If you want to survive the apocalypse, your social status
might mean more than your get-away bag.
Think about the bodies that cultural texts show us after
the world ends. Think about the way black characters always die first, about how the people who might be able to
reproduce are told it’s their duty to have children regardless of their wishes or their sexuality. What does it mean
to be a survivor in a world where you’re not expected to
make it?
We spoke with Dr. Trimble—a professor in the Women
and Gender Studies department currently teaching a
class called “Feminism, Zombies, and Survivalism”—about
the way gendered, racialized, and generational politics
operate in apocalyptic fiction.
There’s something about this particular historical moment that has us thinking about the apocalypse—not just
as entertainment, but as an exploration of our collective
anxiety. “I think part of it is that everyone feels, in some
way or another, this feeling of unsustainability. Whatever
your location on the political spectrum, there are questions
of what is unsustainable, in terms of economics, in terms of
the environment, and I think that always prompts questions
of what comes next. What comes after an inevitable disaster?” said Trimble.
Frederic Jameson famously suggested that it’s easier
to imagine the end of the world than it is to imagine the
end of capitalism. In an age where averting environmental
crisis requires profound systemic change that we’ve failed
to commit to, we’re left with a pressing question: How do
we continue when all of this is gone? “There is this sense of
living within this all-encompassing structure or system that
has become so common-sense that the imagination literally
fails at the edges of it. Can we actually imagine a world
that is differently organized, in a really profound way? Can
we imagine what revolution looks like in this context?” said
Trimble. Apocalyptic fiction has the potential to offer us
that differently-organized world—but instead, it often reinforces these structures, and shows how persistently we are
attached to them.

4

For Trimble, the TV show The Walking Dead demonstrates a “failure of imagination” when it comes to thinking outside of the tried-and-true “lone wolf” narrative—a
position usually only assigned to white, patriarchal figures.
Through this survivalist frame, we are expected to root for
those who survive, because they are capable of surviving.
As Trimble argued, the narrative becomes one of, “those
who were meant to make it, made it, and therefore everyone else was kind of a disposal body.” Such social Darwinist logic becomes a matter deemed justifiable and even
necessary given the circumstances.
The Walking Dead is particularly interesting in terms
of its representation of children. [Warning: spoilers] There’s
Sophia, the innocent young girl who disappears and returns half a season later, zombie-ified and stumbling out
of a barn to run at her mother. There’s Beth, the youngest
daughter of Hershel, who by Season 3 is playing house
with Carl and has stepped up to fill the “mother” category
vacated by Lori when she dies. And then you’ve got Carl.
In Season 2, he’s given his father’s sheriff hat and allowed
to shoot a gun, and by Season 3, when Rick and Hershel are “incapacitated” (more on that later), he steps up
to “become a man”—going out on his own, telling people
what to do, locking prisoners up. The dramatic contrast between the ways these younger characters grow up highlights the gendered expectations in apocalyptic scenarios.
“He’s coming into power, while the girls are coming into
motherhood—or death,” said Trimble. “That is part of the
conservatism of survivalist scenarios—part of Carl’s authority comes from his youth, that he is the future, therefore he
is the one who’s in a position to say this is how it will be
done. And that, in my experience, in terms of what I’ve
seen, tends to authorize an incredible amount of violence.”
This focus on younger generations reveals another
framework that dominates representations of post-apocalyptic social structures. Although far from the only possible option, survivalist states are so often responded to
in circumscribed ways: a person’s worth becomes inextricably connected to their vitality and health (i.e. how long

“Thinking about what
it means to survive
for people who aren’t
‘meant’ to survive is
about contesting the
way that we can imagine the future. If we assume that only those
who are meant to survive are the ones that
are going to shape the
future, then the possible ways of imagining the future become
quite narrow.”
they’re going to be around) and to what they have to contribute to the group (i.e. what justifies their consumption of
precious resources). Such a framework, shaped by the “survival of the fittest” expectation, wields immense violence.
How do we think about illness, aging, madness, trauma,
and disability in a world in which someone’s perceived
health (and so assumed longevity) determines ultimate authority? When belonging to the social unit—in a context
of unimaginably high stakes—becomes contingent on being
categorized as “useful”, as “valuable” in the narrowest of
senses? How do the existing forms of violence done to
disabled people get reinforced, multiplied, and mutated in
this kind of landscape?
Part of what gives Carl the authority to assume this role
is that the two competing patriarchs from Season 2—Rick
and Hershel—are both “incapacitated” in Season 3. For
Hershel, it’s that he’s bitten by a zombie and his leg has
to be cut off before the infection spreads to the rest of his

Art by Sarah Crawley & Emily Pollock
body. For Rick, it’s that his wife’s death—and the horrors
of the world in which they’re struggling to survive—have
left him traumatized, to the extent that he sees things and
hears voices. Rick’s madness and Hershel’s disability are
what provide the opening for Carl to assume his patriarchal role, even though he’s barely a teenager. The implications in this scenario about usefulness, fitness, and vitality
are intimately connected to larger, structural narratives
about who’s “meant” to survive an apocalypse.
“Thinking about what it means to survive for people
who aren’t ‘meant’ to survive is about contesting the way
that we can imagine the future. If we assume that only
those who are meant to survive are the ones that are going to shape the future, then possible ways of imagining the
future become quite narrow, because only certain kinds of
bodies are going to make it,” said Trimble. When we start
to wonder who’s locked out of the future, it reflects the
kinds of bodies and skills we prioritize today. Who do we
see as “contributing” to society? Who do we imagine as
a “burden”? When we’re already invested in these forms
of violence and actively drawing these lines today, we
shouldn’t be surprised when we see people abandoned
for “slowing down the group” in apocalyptic fiction.
For Trimble, survivalism as a movement and a narrative tends to be inherently conservative. In survivalist fiction,
the people given the authority—and the better chances
of making it to the end of the story—are overwhelmingly
straight, white, and male. These representations merit criticism in their own right, but focusing exclusively on fiction
about the future also eclipses the ways in which, for many
members of marginalized communities, everyday life is an
act of survival. “Survivalism, as a movement, as a set of beliefs, would certainly define survival as something that happens in the wake of a catastrophe. But for a lot of people,
day-to-day life is about survival, because there’s already
been a catastrophe,” said Trimble. When marginalized
people are those with experience surviving overwhelmingly hostile conditions, when those are the people who
have had to learn to assess danger and escape routes

early, to be resilient in the face of violence, why do we so
rarely see them after the world ends?
Trimble offered an important shift in how we think through
survival: “I think that one of the concepts I hang on to as an
ethical alternative to survivalism, which as all of those really
masculinist, white connotations of ‘fortify your plot of land
and get a gun’, is Roger Simon’s concept of survivorship.”
Survivorship, instead, is about placing yourself in thoughtful
relation to the others around you. “What he’s thinking about
is how you awaken to the fact that you have survived. But
you’re not just awakening to the fact that you lived and a
bunch of other people didn’t, but to the fact that you have
survived the dead. So survivorship puts you in an ethical
relationship with those who have not survived… There’s an
ethical framework that opens up when we imagine sur-

“Survivalism, as a
movement, as a set of
beliefs, would certainly define survival as
something that happens in the wake of a
catastrophe. But for a
lot of people, day-today life is about survival, because there’s
already been a catastrophe.”
vival as being sort of on the backs of others, as being
something that comes at a cost,” said Trimble. “And I think
for people who experience survival on a day-to-day basis,
that’s part of what that experience is—recognizing that it’s
been a hard road for a lot of people, and you’re coming in
the aftermath of that.”
As an academic coming out of a cultural studies back-

ground, Trimble’s engagement with “the apocalypse” tends
to be through resistant reading practices. These reading
practices open up the possibilities and narratives behind
mainstream apocalyptic fiction, whether or not the author
intended to bring them into play. “One of my reading practices is to look at the questions of who are the figures that
haunt these narratives. In something like Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, which is a typical father-son journey, the
son’s continuing life is what authorizes all of the father’s
violence against everyone around them, and authorizes
his incredible isolation—but for me, what’s so interesting
about that narrative is that in the background, there is this
mother, who has committed suicide before the narrative
even begins,” said Trimble.
“This is the character that the narrative just forecloses
on, and says, that’s the giving-up route, that’s the way out
that we can’t countenance, that we can’t actually come to
terms with. What kind of thinking, what way of evaluating
the scenario, is at work in her choice? For me, it’s that she
sees the cost of survival. She sees that in order to survive,
there’s a kind of economy... You’re going to have to hoard
resources. You’re going to have to kill threatening others.
You’re going to have to economize on everything. I think
hers is a really compromised attempt to resist that economizing impulse. To say that yeah, there is a high, high cost
here, and I’m going to bear it all myself—which becomes
this really self-destructive act. I don’t think that’s where we
want to end up, but I think we need to pursue the line of
questioning that that opens up.”
What these questions open up is the possibility of imagining that those who didn’t make it to the end of everything are people whose stories are still worth telling, whose
choices and motivations and trauma demand being taken
seriously. When we’re only invested in those who survive,
we’re not considering the violence they’ve committed to
get there or the implications of the worldviews they espouse. By re-reading the apocalypse, and seeing what
those dominant stories suppress, we open up an entirely
new way of envisioning the future.

5

Art by Emily Pollock

1960

1974

1989

2001

2013

2025

2056

2078

The Future of Birth Control
2213

2200

2188

2163

2139

2114

2091

2083

By Claire Wilkins

P

regnancy has always been a major concern central
to human life. Some of the earliest humans had no
idea where babies came from, and speculated that
children were made not through having sexual intercourse,
but through eating certain types of fruit. Humans have
gone to extreme lengths to avoid getting knocked up, and
family planning was a regular practice even in areas where
people were told by religion to “be fruitful and multiply”.
Methods used to prevent pregnancy and disease have
been very creatively (if at times absurdly) produced. Former methods were not as safe or efficient as modern ones,
and often involved chemicals, herbs, or body parts that
prompt the question: “How the fuck did they even think of
that?” In the Middle Ages, women were advised by magicians to wear weasel testicles on their thighs or hang their
amputated feet from their necks (not so sexy, to say the
least). Settlers of New Brunswick drank a mixture of beaver
testicles and alcohol to prevent pregnancy. Even as recently as the 1990s, Australian teens used candy wrappers as
condoms. Though these tactics may seem bizarre now, we
only believe them to be so because of our distance from
them in cultural and temporal space. What methods are
we using now that may someday become obsolete? And
more importantly, what methods foreign to us today may
soon become the norm? The increasing individualization of
technology is pushing us into a world where not only will
our iPhone apps be personalized, but our contraceptive
methods will be well. Scientists are currently developing
multiple new and improved birth control options that could
redefine reproduction for our generation.
The Contraceptive Gel
Currently being studied in multiple countries, Nestorone is
a dermal gel that suppresses ovulation but doesn’t stop
periods. The gel is applied to the stomach, inner thighs, and
shoulders once a day, which allows estrogen and progesterone to be slowly released into the bloodstream. What’s
cool about the gel is that it dries quickly and leaves no
residue on the skin, and is also unlikely to cause acne. Like
the patch, the gel is transdermal (meaning the hormones
are released through the skin), but unlike the patch, the
contraceptive gel is invisible and can’t fall off. Contraceptive gel could offer a more subtle form of external birth control that is easy to apply, and less obvious than the patch.
The One-Size-Fits-All Diaphragm
PATH (a global non-profit organization) has developed a
new form of the traditional diaphragm and is pushing to

6

get it approved by the FDA in 2013. The SILCS diaphragm
is a method of barrier birth control created for women in
developing countries with limited access to contraception
and medical care. Traditionally, a fitting from a physician
would be required to obtain a diaphragm. The SILCS diaphragm is a single-size model and fits a broad range
of women, which means that a pelvic exam wouldn’t be
required for use. It’s inexpensive, non-hormonal, reusable,
and protects against pregnancy and some STIs. This diaphragm is closely tailored to a woman’s preferences and
offers a lot of personal control. It has a removal dome, making it easier to take out, when not engaging in intercourse.
This option gives more direct and immediate accessibility
to the women who use it, giving them more control of their
own bodies and choices.

The increasing individualization
of technology is pushing us into
a world where not only are our
iPhone apps personalized, but our
contraceptive methods are as well.
The Career Pill
Dr. Roger Gosden (aka Godsend) is an American scientist in the process of developing an oral contraceptive that can delay pregnancy until a woman’s later
years, allowing her to pursue her career without forcing
her to sacrifice her hopes for a family. The pill does not
prevent the ripening of eggs like the traditional birth control pill does, but simply delays ovulation. This method
is an exciting option for women who want to fulfill their
workplace potential but also want to have children
later. The career pill offers both the job and the family,
without anxiety about the biological clock “running out”.
The Dry Orgasm Pill
A change we’ll see in the future is the proliferation of contraceptive options for males. One such method has been
dubbed the “dry orgasm” or “clean sheets” pill. Developed
by doctors at King’s College London, the pill is a combination of medicine for high blood pressure and schizophrenia.
It causes muscles to clamp down during orgasm, completely blocking the transport of sperm. The man reaches sexual
climax but does not ejaculate, thus the “dry orgasm”. This
option would prevent pregnancy and potentially prevent

transmission of all semen-borne STIs (including HIV). Male
contraceptives still face a cultural resistance however, and
so the shift towards male-oriented birth control should be
expected farther off in the future.
RISUG
Reversible Inhibition of Sperm Under Guidance (or RISUG)
is the development name of a male contraceptive created
in India that targets the testes. The vas deferens (the vessel
through which sperm moves before ejaculation) is injected
with polymer gel. The walls of the vas deferens are coated
with a clear gel that is suspected to lower the pH of the
environment, killing the sperm. Although it’s still in its experimental phase, RISUG has been seen to be very effective. It only caused one unplanned pregnancy out of 250
volunteers, apparently due to a faulty injection, and the
injection can last for up to 10 years. This method is one of
the more extreme and permanent forms of possible future
birth control choices, but has been found to be reversible.
The Dissolving Condom
Researchers at the University of Washington are working
on a new form of contraceptive that upgrades the female
condom. It not only prevents pregnancy, but also protects
against STIs, releasing preventative drugs after use. The
condom is made using “electrospinning”, a process where
fibers are created out of liquid using an electric field. The
material is able to block sperm and release chemical
contraceptives and antivirals. Cloth-like fibers can be woven very thinly to create dissolvable webs that prevent
unplanned pregnancy and block STIs. This method gives
back control to women in preventing HIV and pregnancy
in a more affordable and less invasive way. Dissolvable
condoms are also environmentally friendly because they
don’t end up in a landfill after use. Now you can get rid of
your birth control quickly and easily after sex—if only there
were such an option for those drunken one-night stands
that you’d rather forget.
In the face of the terrifingly undefined future, our generation can at least find comfort in the knowledge that we will
have a range of choices in birth control methods. A variety
of tailored contraceptive options will help put us back in
control of our own futures by giving us a reproductive efficency and safety (and thus, a peace of mind) that past
generations weren’t able to experience. We might actually
have the opportunity to fuck like there’s no tomorrow.

KIDS
Allie Chenoweth

A

sking anyone in their 20s what they want to do
with their life is a stressful enough question as it
is. But if you really want to make a few of them
squirm, ask them, “So, do you want to have kids?”
Looking at the current landscape for university graduates (myself included), a vast majority of us have a pretty
serious case of collective tunnel vision. We seem to only
be able to consider our academic and career prospects,
letting many other concerns fall to the wayside. Don’t
get me wrong: I’m really glad that we’re well beyond
the point where the ultimate goal for a female university
graduate was to obtain a ring with her diploma. And
we have every reason to be extremely concerned about
where our careers will go. But I’m a person who is inherently terrified at the idea of limiting the options available
to me in the future. What if our dismissal of the possibility
of making our own families in the future ends up biting us
in the ass?
Why aren’t we thinking about the families we may or
may not be having in the future? Or at least, why aren’t
we talking more openly about the issue? Part of what’s
missing from the discussion is how we imagine our future
families and what we choose to define as “family”. We still
seem to be stuck in the idea that the logical progression
in life for (typical heteronormative) family-making is: Step
1) establish career, Step 2) establish committed relationship, Step 3) establish family—steps 1 and 2 have more
flexibility in their timing, but the “having children” part can
only occur after those initial facts are settled. While we’re
still in our early 20s, this constructed timeline convinces us
that family is a distant future, when in fact it’s much nearer
than we assume. So let’s talk about it.
For those of us who do see ourselves having our own
families, most of us imagine that we do so when the conditions are ideal: namely, with financial stability and, often,
with a long-term partner. And for many of us, those ideal
conditions don’t seem remotely feasible in the near future. When I think about the prospect of starting a family,
my biggest anxiety by far is the financial stress. Given the
current economic realities for many early-20-somethings,
it’s almost impossible to imagine being able to afford all
the costs of having and raising a child. It’s hard to tell how
long we will be floundering—we have too few jobs and
too many overly educated young professionals. We can’t
predict when those conditions will change, but we’re still
quite a few years away from the boomers retiring. Hell,
a staggering number of people in their 20s are moving
back in with their parents because they can’t afford to
live on their own; no wonder it’s impossible to imagine

starting a family when many of us are still living with the
one we grew up with. Our generation may continue the
trend of couples (not necessarily with children) becoming
common-law simply for the financial benefits of splitting
living costs between two people—though it’s on a caseby-case basis that co-habitation is either a success or a
nightmare.
And while an established career and financial stability seem like lofty goals, the idea—at this age—of finding
someone with whom you would consider having children
seems even more preposterous. How we imagine “significant others” at our current stage of life is probably not
incredibly conducive to family-building, which contributes
to our mental-distancing of a time when we might start
our own families. This is another one of those problematic
concepts that we’ve latched onto even though most of
us probably know better—the idea of only being able
to start a family with someone you are in love with, committed to, and completely compatible with—an adapted
version of The One (an idea which I hope we can do
away with in the future). We always think about creating
a family under conditions that are static, stable, and situated. Despite our knowing that life tends to be none of
these things—and that we might not be ready to “settle
down” even if we could—we keep waiting for these “ideal” circumstances to begin thinking about having a family.
And regardless of whether you do seek these “ideal
circumstances”, you might be using concerns about the
far-future as an excuse to disregard family building in the
nearer future. You might be apprehensive about having
children outside of a committed, long-term relationship,
but given that Statistics Canada predicts that 43.1% of
married couples are divorced before their 50th anniversary, even marriage is no guarantee that the relationship
will work forever. A cynical (and arguably pragmatic) response to those kinds of statistics might be, “Well, if almost
half of marriages are likely to end poorly, maybe there’s
no point to getting married at all.” Because when you
imagine the family you’ll have, you probably imagine it
as being happy and “intact” (to use the parlance of Stats
Canada) for the rest of your life, or at least until your kids
are adults. Few people set out to have a kid planning
on splitting future Thanksgivings and Christmases, though
that’s an increasingly common reality.
But what about people who don’t want to be in committed, long-term relationships at all? Our culture has yet
to widely accept living alone as a lifestyle choice compatible with a successful, emotionally-fulfilling life without
a committed partner. And we have yet to broaden our

definitions of family so that it can mean whatever anyone
wants it to mean. I would love to see that attitude shift in
our culture, particularly in how it pertains to women. The
idea that a woman isn’t “complete” or able to be happy
if she doesn’t have a committed partner is absolutely absurd. It seems like the declaration of “I’m happiest being
single and living alone” gets interpreted, more often than
not, as, “There is something clearly wrong with me.” For
some reason, we’ve been able to normalize the idea that

MORE IMPORTANTLY, WE
NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT
NOT HAVING OR WANTING A COMMITTED RELATIONSHIP AND WANTING
TO BUILD A FAMILY ARE NOT
FUNDAMENTALLY INCOMPATIBLE IDEAS.
not wanting kids is perfectly reasonable (though that was
pretty unheard of a generation ago), but we can’t fathom
that some don’t want to pursue committed relationships.
More importantly, we need to understand that not having or wanting a committed relationship and wanting to
build a family are not fundamentally incompatible ideas.
Anyone who wants children but doesn’t find or doesn’t
want a partner shouldn’t be scorned; just as anyone who
has no desire to have children shouldn’t be viewed as
“family-less”. Definitions of family don’t necessarily need to
include children but may include different kinds of people
we haven’t typically associated as “family members”.
In the realm of sexuality, we’re making a lot of strides
towards an “anything goes” attitude: that sexuality is individual, complex, and has a million different facets, that no
one should feel obligated to fit into any category, that,
ultimately, you should do what makes you happy. Why
can’t we feel that way about families? We are the ones
who will define how our society thinks of the concept of
family in the future--and although our thoughts may be
drawn to more pressing concerns for our futures, it’s a
conversation worth having right now, when we have all
the time and opportunities in the world.

7

BEYOND DEVELOPMENT
By Benedict Darren

F

irst World and Third World. Developed and report by the Jubilee Debt Campaign indicates that
developing. West and East. These are the des- foreign investors and development banks have reignations we use to classify countries based ceived approximately $320 million per year from
on their economic development, life expec- Mozal, in contrast to the Mozambique government’s
tancy, infrastructure advances, and overall stan- revenue of $15 million. Policy alterations imposed by
dards of living.
the World Bank have generated massive profits for
The United States and Canada together spend foreign investors and donors rather than promoting
upwards of $35 billion annually on international aid local development.
aimed at supporting the development of the ecoMeanwhile, Mozambique’s debt to the World
nomic, social, and political landscape of developing Bank is currently almost $5 billion. Interest charges
countries. An underlying assumption in such projects incurred through SAPs cause a disproportionate
is the existence of a developmental gap, and that accumulation of debt to the World Bank, creating
developed countries should assist developing coun- a vicious cycle in which further loans must be
tries in bridging this disparity. But as we look to the taken to pay back debts. The recipient
future, an inexorable question remains: with devel- government becomes locked into a
opmental aid handed out by privileged hands, is it permanent state of dependency
right for us to insist on a world where all countries on the West. Further down
are “developed”?
this road, it’s not hard to
To this day, foreign aid administered by devel- imagine a future in which
oped countries reflects a Western template for the world will consist
development. If we maintain the course of what of nations deemed
we call developmental aid today, the developing “developed”, but deworld will be one of structural and ideological ho- prived of sovereignty
mogeneity. The World Bank, a multilateral financial and ultimately reliant
institution, hands out loans to developing countries on external (read: Westto achieve its core mandate of poverty reduction, ern) assistance.
but these loan provisions are contingent upon meetAs university students,
ing neoliberal policy targets outlined by the World it’s convenient for us to
Bank’s Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs). True think that developmental
to their name, SAPs enforce market deregulation, aid is solely political, best
privatization, and trade liberalization, effectively left to high-ranking officials in
restructuring the domestic economy of the recipient supranational organizations such
country. By dictating a nation’s economic policies in as the World Bank, the International
exchange for developmental aid, the World Bank Monetary Fund, or the European Union. However,
undermines that nation’s sovereignty.
developmental aid is something all citizens are intiIn Mozambique, the World Bank sponsored a mately connected to. Many of us are involved with
SAP titled the Economic Recovery Program. Eco- non-governmental organizations (NGOs) focused
nomic reforms instituted by the World Bank required on improving and transforming quality of life. NGOs
the Mozambican
tackle diverse issues
government to lift
of human rights, enprotectionist barriForeign aid administered by vironmental responers, primarily export
and perhaps
developed countries reflects sibility,
duties on natural
most visibly, devela Western template for de- opment. Even those
resources like aluminum. This prompted
velopment. If we maintain this of us without direct
a flood of foreign
involvement
with
course, the developing world NGOs have likely
investment in the
will be one of structural and made some kind of
construction
of
Mozal, an alumicontribution to a deideological homogenity.
num smelting facilvelopmental effort,
ity from which the
be it through finanMozambican government levies 1% tax. In addition cial donations or voluntary service.
to reducing government revenue, export tax exempBecause NGOs present an image of charity and
tions increase foreign extraction of key domestic re- benevolence, it’s often hard to see the shortcomings
sources like aluminum, while diminishing value added in their work. Many NGOs compound the problems
through job creation in the local aluminum industry.
caused by SAPs by pursuing their own agendas and
In essence, the SAP in Mozambique has facili- priorities without consulting local governments. Extated the assimilation of the Mozambican economy clusion of the local government allows NGOs to acinto a global market economy tailored by the West. tively supplant government in administering services
Developmental aid is devoid of any respect for de- for their own people.
veloping nations’ capacity to manage
In Haiti, the 7.0 magnitude earthquake in 2010
their own growth.
killed an estimated 230,000 people, prompting
The argument that recipient countries hundreds of NGOs to descend upon Haiti. Initially,
benefit the most from aid implemented international donors acknowledged the vital role
8
by foreign donors is dubious. A recent the Haitian government had to play in leading its

own recovery. But this was easier said than done.
Only 1% of donor funds dedicated to emergency
relief were directed to the government in the first
wave of aid money which flowed into Haiti after
the earthquake. Even Haitian NGOs were neglected, receiving only 0.4% of the aid money collected.
Some may argue that channeling aid funds toward
NGOs avoids the problem of governmental corruption, ensuring that the money remains accountable.
It is this perception that the local government is
unqualified and incapable of producing results that
predisposes it to external manipulation.
The newly appointed Haitian prime minister,
Laurent Lamothe, spoke about the
issue in his statement to the
Canadian Press: “Basically,
the development assistance, because of the
perceived weakness
of Haitian institutions,
was routed directly
to NGOs and Canadian firms. That
weakened our institutions.”
This encourages
Haitians to turn to
NGOs in place of
their government for
basic services, reinforcing local dependency on
foreign aid. Even prior to the
quake, foreign aid in Haiti ranged
from 113% to130% of the government’s revenue. After the quake, foreign aid amounted to four
times the Haitian government’s revenue. With an
unknown number of NGOs operating in Haiti, it’s
worth questioning whether our aid is accountable to
the Haitian people.
With the undercutting of national sovereignty so
palpable, the virtue of our current model of developmental aid is questionable. In Mozambique, the
World Bank has shaped the government’s economic
policies through conditional loans. In Haiti, dubbed
a “Republic of NGOs”, foreign donors and NGOs
now constitute a force rivalling the national government, but richer, and in many ways more powerful. Unless we want the developed world to be a
neocolonial Western world, we cannot continue to
impose our usual formulas for development on other
nations.
Though the prospect of poverty reduction and
equitable living is commendable, we need to respect the right of sovereign nations to institute
development on their own terms. Investments by
international banks and NGOs should focus on
programs that build local infrastructure and stimulate local economy without fostering dependency
on foreign aid. Most importantly, these processes
must actively involve the government of the recipient country. For the sake of a better future, we must
radically re-evaluate our definition of development.

A DISABLED FUTURE

By Sara Deris

T

hirty years ago, there was no such thing as Disability Studies. The role of “disabled” had never
been actively examined, and it was commonly accepted that a disabled person was on his or her own—
a victim of unfortunate circumstance. In the 1970s, the
Open University in the UK ran a new course titled “The
Handicapped Person in the Community”. It was met with
great interest, and subsequently the University of Kent
introduced the first Masters degree in what would be
later known as Disability Studies.
The first academic journal to support the new field
was established in 1986, and was called Disability and
Society. As the discussion grew, the medical model of
disability was critiqued, and Disability Studies scholars
began to think of disability as a social creation, rather
than an individualized medical issue. As scholar Lennard Davis put it, “disability is not an object—a woman
with a cane—but a social process that intimately involves everyone who has a body and lives in the world
of senses.” Disability Studies is not a study of individual
disabilities themselves, but the social climate that creates disability.
Currently, very few international and even fewer
Canadian universities offer any serious scholarship in
the field of Disability Studies, and it is often met with
the scorn that the feminist movement was met
with in its earliest days—the accusation that
it is not a legitimate scholarly field. Few
people outside of the scholarly environment. Have knowledge of Disability Studies and the huge insight it offers into representation,
pop culture, narrative, and
other intersecting social categories. Disability Studies is
still new enough that every
theory is innovative, making the present an amazing time to be involved in
this scholarship.One can
literally watch the theoretical foundation of an entire
field unfold in real time.
As it stands, the burgeoning field has quite a future in academia. However,
in order for Disability Studies
to have a full academic future,
scholars must backtrack into the
past and further inspect the history
of disability. Moving forward is problematic without looking back, and Disability Studies—with its rapid growth and
increasing scholarship—has teetered dangerously close to doing just that. Very few studies of
the history of the treatment of disabled people have
conducted, and all have been covered very narrow
time frames; for example, Martha Rose’s work on disability in the ancient Greek world, and Douglas Baynton’s work on disability as a justification for inequality in early American history. More research must be
done on the treatment of disabled people throughout
history—a difficult task considering that there are very
few actual testimonies from disabled people explaining
what it was like. The research must take a more round-

about approach, by reading into laws and orations, as
well as examining archaeological evidence.
The assumption made by the majority of those considering the development of society is that it has been
linear and forward-moving; that every move we have
made has been an improvement, a step in the right
direction. This could hold true with thought on disability if the history is not thoroughly examined. Disability
was not, in the past, considered a medical “problem” in
need of a solution, nor were disabled people isolated
and made to feel like disability was an individual issue
with no place in the public sphere. The introduction of
the concept of the “norm”, and “normalcy” in the period of 1840–1860 gave birth to these ideas, and the
subsequent obsession with “l’homme moyen”, statistics,
and a consistent, strong “body politic” further enforced
them.
The industrial revolution, with its need for similar
bodies able to perform repetitive strenuous tasks, resulted in the isolation of disabled people. Disability was
then used as a justification for inequality;―“scholars”
wrote that slaves would be unhappy with freedom, biologically

predetermined to
be slaves. Medicalized disability was used as a “legitimate” means of undermining the rights of African American people. In the New Orleans Medical and Surgical
Journal, “the negro race” was biologically of a weaker
constitution than the superior white race, suffering from
“inferior organisms and constitutional weaknesses.”
In 1851 Dr. Samuel Cartwright “invented” disabili-

ties that he claimed were specific to African American
people and justified slavery. Drapetomania, the compulsion of a slave to flee, was particularly common. Dysaesthesia Aethiopis was “a desire to avoid work and
generally to cause mischief”. It was commonly known
to overseers as “rascality”. Its cause, like that of Drapetomania, was a feeling of equality, and therefore occurred more in free African Americans, “although it was
a common occurrence on badly-governed plantations
as well.” Later on, when immigration controls based
on race became taboo, entrance to America could be
blocked on the basis of their possibility of becoming a
public burden to which apparently, certain races were
prone. In order for Disability Studies to have a fully realized future, further work must be done on fleshing out
the history of the treatment of disabled people to fully
understand current attitudes.
In addition to tapping into the past, the future of
Disability Studies will move forward and outwards, enriching other fields based on the examination of social
categories, such as race, gender, and class. Rosemarie
Thomson, a prominent Disability Studies scholar, introduced the “disabled woman figure” and “feminist Disability Studies” in her 1997 book Extraordinary Bodies.
In addition to contributing to the field of Disability Studies, Thomson’s work serves to produce a feminism
that “is more capacious and subtle in its understanding of identity, subjectivity, and
social relations.” For example, the study
of disability complicates the feminist
critique of the sexual objectification of women, the regulation of
women’s reproductive rights,
and the issue of who is seen
as “fit” to be a mother. The
study of disability will also
further enrich studies of
race, as the otherization
of marginalized ethnicities
may be examined through
a Disability Studies perspective (for example,
Sartje Baartman, “the Hottentot Venus”, and Julia Pastrana, “the Ugliest Woman
in the World”, in American
freak shows).
The future of Disability Studies will look back to examine the
historical treatment of disabled
people and how these histories have
influenced modern-day perceptions
of disability, and simultaneously expand
and enrich the examination of intersecting
social categories. Disability Studies has the ability
to “transform, and not simply add to, current considerations of bodily identity.” Here’s to having a department of Disability Studies in every university in 30 more
years.

9

I.I

By Jade Bryan

The Psychic

“I

am a solitary wanderer / a child of gypsies
/ the earth is my mother / and the sun my
older brother” (“Ma Maren Ma,” Fanfare
Ciocarlia, one of the great Romanian gypsy bands).
The Romani people have a rich and often misunderstood culture. “Strangers in strange lands,”
they are nomadic people whose roots stem from
ancient India and Egypt to points all over Europe.
The Romani people have a strong belief in community and a bond with nature and spirituality, and
despite their persecution throughout history, their
unique traditions are woven into the fabric of the
prevailing culture. When travelers from Eastern Europe, Ireland, Scotland, and countless other nations
migrated to North America due to exile or persecution, each town and village they passed through became imprinted with fragments of their remarkable
way of life. Perhaps the most mysterious of these cultural fragments is fortune­-telling. Historically, certain
Romani people were seen as being gifted with psychic abilities, and used this to bring money into their
community through palmistry, tea leaf reading, and
tarot cards. These mystic abilities are said to be intergenerational, and although our culture has largely
came to favour skepticism, and scientific rationality;
some of the spiritual magic of the Romani still exists as we search for something beyond the material
world that surrounds us.

10

Among the skyscrapers and pavements of Toronto, there are hidden places that stand still in time
and preserve the wagons and lyrics of the Romani.
They keep the past from being forgotten—from the
prophets at Delphi in Ancient Greece to emperors
of China in 1150 BCE who sought advice from divination masters of I Ching. Our society is made up
of countless cultures, including a new age spirituality that transcends time and place, and philosophies
that come out of Buddhism and Paganism alike.
Most don’t know much about this psychic community that exists in our city, and we are usually too
busy planning our paths to the future to actually stop
and look at them. Jayne Marie, a Toronto-based
psychic specializing in Tarot card reading and numerology, sees her life purpose as helping people
to understand their paths and futures so that they
can make choices to get what they want out of life.
“[You don’t have the choice] if you’re born here,
or you’re born someplace where you’re persecuted,
[but] all those thing alter […]who you are. Our culture
defines us in many ways. There’s always the chance
of where we were born, who we were born to, social factors that are out of our control. But you have
the right to define how you’re going to deal with it.”
Jayne Marie uses the Tarot not to predict an absolute future, but to provide people with insight so
that they can use free will to change their outcomes.

Tarot cards, like palm reading, tea leaf reading, I
Ching, Reiki, and psychic modalities from all different
cultures, are used as a tool to gain wisdom.
“You have more control over your actions than
you think you do. With knowledge of that, you can
make clearer choices. You can use Tarot, numerology, you can use all kinds of things. There’s not one
path to the top of the mountain”, Marie says.
There are three aspects to reading Tarot cards:
numerology (the number), elements (fire, water, air,
and earth), and symbology (the symbol on the card).
According to Jayne, “Numbers are the basis of everything. Every number has a distinct influence on
our lives.” Your attitude number, for example, is found
by adding together the day and month numbers of
your birth until only one digit remains. My birthday
is September 15th, so I would add nine to five and
one, which makes 15 (one and five), which makes six.
An attitude number of six means that I’m a nurturer:
I place a high importance on family and taking care
of those close to me. In Tarot, numbers are used as
symbols to interpret different meanings in the cards.
Tarot and many other aspects of fortune-telling extend beyond one specific culture to become universal symbols that remain timeless. These symbols are
innately entrenched in the human psyche. It is not
only in psychic modalities, religion, or myth that these
symbols occur; but also in disciplines we are all famil-

iar with, like literature and psychology.
“Carl Jung was very much into scientifically
researching the occult. I read cards as Carl Jung
interprets cards: when you learn the Tarot cards,
basically you are learning an alphabet to teach
your subconscious mind. What Jung called these are
international archetypes. What that means, for instance, is say in our culture, it’s unlucky to walk under
a ladder, but that may not be the case in Croatia.
But in Tarot cards, the sun is the sun in every culture.
The devil is the devil in every culture. So I can read
cards to you, I can read cards to someone in Italy, I
can read cards for someone anywhere—these are
international archetypes that reflect all cultures. The
cards are there as a tool for you to connect with
what Jung called the ‘collective unconscious’, which
is now commonly called ‘the universe’. So you tap
into your subconscious mind with the cards, and
what your subconscious mind doesn’t know, it gets
from its higher self in the collective unconscious. All
this wisdom is out there, it’s just a matter of pulling it
in. And that’s what the Tarot cards do.”
Even though we’re surrounded by images and

symbols, words and numbers, it’s easy to use them
without thinking about what you’re doing. Tarot
cards tap into our subconscious minds to use these
symbols as a way of communicating how we feel
and think—whether we know it or not. You don’t
have to be of a certain culture or religion to gain
wisdom from Tarot, and “you don’t have to be a believer to make it work, but you have to understand
that there’s more than just what we see in front of
our face.”
Psychics get a bad reputation in modern society
as con artists who take advantage of the gullible;
people who have tapped into a rich cultural tradition to make a quick buck. Psychics like Jayne, with
integrity and respect, aren’t out there to make money but to do something they love and help people
transform their lives. Even if you don’t believe in a
collective unconscious or a higher existence, everybody can gain wisdom by stopping to look at the
path they’ve chosen and where they will end up.
“You have to live with intention. If your intentions are good, and clear, and kind, everything
is fine. But if your intentions are for money, or for

power, or for greed, it’s not good for anybody. It’s
not good for the vibrations of the universe. Every
time we do something good and kind, the vibrations lift. We all rise together. There’s enough stuff in
the world that’s already negative, so we should all
send out positive energy,” she says.
Tarot is only one of many psychic modalities, but
by looking at the root of our human experience,
we can better understand how we choose to live
our lives. Jayne’s philosophy is one we should all
live by, and even when we step out of the realm
of Tarot, of crystal balls and Reiki; we can apply
those positive, communal principles to our everyday
lives and become more fulfilled by the path we’re
on. Our culture often makes us feel like wanderers,
strangers in a strange land. By focusing on our destinations—careers, money, diplomas, and GPAs—we
are constantly adrift. But we often forget that the
journey is just as important as the destination. Perhaps with tools like Tarot, we can start to feel less
like strangers and instead take the opportunity to
see the world as our caravan.

Resources to learn more
To get your cards read or learn how to read Tarot: http://jmarieps.com/index.html
For free talks and psychic resources: Origo book store, across from St. Lawrence market
To learn the basics of Tarot for free: www.learntarot.com; American Tarot Association (ATA-tarot.com)

11

Reading into the future:

By Jesse Ryckman

SCIENCE FICTION

Triple Feature

By Tara Mactavish
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (2011)
The ultimate novel for any self-professed vintage fanatic, Ready Player One bursts on to
the sci fi scene with an energy that makes it
impossible to put down. Cline paints a grim
near future depicting the classic online game
world with a twist: the game’s creator—as well
as the gamers themselves—are obsessed with
80s pop culture. The fast-paced narrative and
hilarious characters benefit from Cline’s warm
geek-loving style. Expect references to Ferris
Bueller, Pac-Man, Star Wars, and Rush as protagonist Wade Watts competes for the chance
to change his life, and perhaps the world.
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (2009)
This dystopian epic took home the 2010 Hugo
Award for science fiction—and with good reason. Setting his book in southeast Asia in the
23rd century, Bacigalupi creates a volatile future. Biotechnology and genetic experimentation wind themselves around a plot rife with
social and political unrest. At the centre of this
brave new world is Emiko, an abandoned,
genetically-enhanced humanoid known as a
“windup girl”, who is abused and exposed to
the horrors of a precarious future. Assassinations, riots, plague, mass murder, and powerful character chemistry make this an emotionally intense and beautiful book.
Embassytown by China Miéville (2011)
Miéville doesn’t often venture out of the realm
of fantasy novels, of which he is already considered a master. Embassytown is one such
venture, a sci fi tale that takes place across
the galaxy on the planet Arieka, told from
the perspective of resident Avice. Readers
must stay alert as they are bombarded with
flashbacks and references to alien races and
space travel techniques that make very little
sense in the early pages. It’s worth sticking at
though, as the plot picks up and Avice watches her entire world change with the arrival of
one man and the transformation
of an alien race.

12

I recently had the pleasure of conducting an interview with Chris Szego, manager of the Bakka-Phoenix bookstore.
Founded in 1972, it is the oldest science
fiction and fantasy bookstore in Canada. I asked Szego about her thoughts
on the future. The following are excerpts
from our conversation.
Chris Szego: Science fiction does not
usually attempt to be predictive of the
future. The point is to extrapolate, to
explore, to look at things as they are
and imagine possible scenarios for their
eventual outcome. And that’s one of the
things science fiction writers do really
well.
Jesse Ryckman: I read a comment of
yours where you said that entertainment trends have been leaning largely
towards the speculative in the modern
period?
CS: Certainly, yeah. And really, if you
name the biggest ones in the past 10–15
years, they are all speculative in nature.
Going back to Harry Potter—that book
was the first true, absolutely worldwide
entertainment trend.
JR: Why do you suppose that today we
are seeing such a shift when in the past,
speculative narratives have not been
predominant?
CS: I think there are a number of possible
explanations. One is ease of communication. Science fiction was the literature
of the outsider. Science fiction has always had a social aspect to its fandom.
Members reached out to each other,
joined clubs, and made zines. They had
conventions so that people who loved
the same things could get together and
talk about them. We have the Internet
for that now—it’s become much easier
to join that community.
Another explanation is that the past
ten years have been tough. In times
like this, speculative literature that says
maybe something crazy could happen is
very helpful.

want is a way of thinking about something differently. Speculative fiction also
often uses its conventions and tropes to
look at the world now, the world the
way it is. But frankly, there’s nothing
wrong with an actual escape.
JR: The business of bookselling has become harder due to the rise of technological innovation—I’m thinking of Amazon here. What’s your perspective on
that?
CS: First of all, independent bookselling
has always been difficult. In the early
90s, [the problem] was the rise of bigbox stores, and that wasn’t technology,
that was money. However, somewhat
surprisingly, the sale of e-books in Canada has declined over the last couple of
years, not risen.
Here’s the thing: I love reading and
I love books. As a bookseller, I want
to be able to offer my customers what
they want in whatever format they want.
There is not yet a way that independent
booksellers can sell e-books from the
major publishers, but there are methods being experimented with. It’s just a
format—it’s not a new thing, it’s not the
boogie man. People like [e-books] for
different reasons. They want to load up
an e-reader before they go on vacation, but when it’s their favourite book,
they want to have the actual book. They
want the object; they want to be able to
touch it and love it.
Also, there is no e-book anywhere
that is going to last as long as one
decent paperback. My dad has massmarket paperbacks that he’s had on his
shelf since before I was born. Can you
think of any computer technology that’s
still working today from that time?
JR: You mean because of obsolescence?

JR: A lot of people will level the allegation that speculative fiction is escapist.

CS: Yes. One of the things we know
about computers today is that obsolescence is designed right into them—
books not so much. The computer didn’t
make books and pens or pencils disappear, partly because we know now
how electronic records can be lost. But I
absolutely think that e-books are going
to rise.

CS: As a purveyor of science fiction
fantasy, I have no problem with that—I
don’t take that as a pejorative. Interest
in speculative fiction doesn’t mean that
you don’t understand the world today.
It just means that sometimes what you

JR: How do you see automation and
technological progress affecting society
more broadly? Do you see it as a positive influence? Do you see technological
replacement or the reduction of positions for skilled workers expanding into

other sectors?
CS: There isn’t one single answer, but
one of the things we’ve seen through
human history is that a major mechanical advance is broadly good for society
overall, excellent for a tiny proportion,
and terrible for a larger proportion.
However, the idea that [technological
advancement] is automatically good is
naive at best.
JR: Conversely, I feel that in our society
there is a rejection of technological advancement, the kind of sentiment that
we should “go back”. Do you think it’s
possible to “go back”?
CS: No. I only think it’s possible in nightmarish scenarios. But a lot of technological advances have been good: we
can’t uninvent the Internet, and we can’t
uninvent polio vaccines, thankfully.
JR: On the other hand, the same is true
of atomic bombs.
CS: Hmm, more worrying. But there are
lots of things that are good. We create
the future every day. Every choice we
make is leading us toward something,
and that might not be where we want
to go, but it’s not static. The most important thing is to decide what kind of future
you want to have, and work to make it
happen.
JR: As a bookseller, have you noticed
any changes over time in the community
you have here?
CS: Well, one of the things I’ve noticed is
that people are more isolated than they
used to be. They think they are more connected, but are actually connected less
to other human beings. A store like this
acts as a community hub. We have lots
of author events; for instance, just last
Friday we had Cory Doctorow. We had
him off-site because it was a pretty big
crowd—almost 200 people came out for
that. And we’ve got a launch coming
up on Saturday: Julie Czerneda, who’s
very well-liked in the industry. She’s a
biologist and a sci fi writer, and she’s
written her first fantasy novel. A lot of
people are coming in from out of town
simply to see her. They want the experience of interacting with other people,
of talking about the things that they love,
and that’s something a store like this offers, and it’s something that’s rare and
valuable. It’s that sense of connection.

the body electronic
By Sabina Freiman

the future of
physical selfexpression

attoos, piercings, jewelry, scents, clothing styles:
these are our media for self-expression. However,
they do not fully portray who we are or what we
are feeling: perhaps I’m generally angry and outspoken,
covered in tattoos, and sporting band shirts. But does
this look also express who I am when I’m feeling quiet
and sensitive, or happy and excited? Maybe not as
much as it could.
Picture more dynamic forms of self-expression: an
electronic tattoo activated by sexual arousal, a perfume
ingested in pill form that varies based on genetics and
excitement, a necklace that senses your emotions and
transmits those signals to other necklace wearers, a
dress that illuminates depending on your current emotions. This sort of technology would express you as you
are, in real time. Such technologies are likely to hold
high-profile roles in the future of fashion. But is there a
point at which self-expression begins to reveal more
about us than we intended?
Lucy McRae—originally a ballerina with a background in architecture—came up with the term “body
architect” to describe her interests in fashion and how
one can combine technology and biology to change
the way we express ourselves through clothing. She has
worked with Philips Electronics on “Design Futures”; coming up with pilot projects that showcase the future of
technology. However, their ideas currently come with
a caveat—“[this is] a far-future design concept. It is not
intended as a production prototype nor will it be sold
as a Philips product”—they have sparked a great deal
of interest. Philips stresses that “this concept is testing a
possible future—not prescribing one.”
Let’s look at what some of these products are in more
detail. The SKIN tattoo, activated by touch and emotions, takes a common form of self-expression to the next
level. A video demonstration of the technology features
two partners: as the woman strokes the man’s back, patterns begin to swirl out from underneath her touch. As
the video progresses, the tattoo gets larger and more
extensive, presumably as his desire increases. The technology behind the idea combines various sensors to
pick up on current emotional states, based on bodily
reactions. A similar idea is actually being developed for
diabetics: a tattoo made of nanoparticles that changes
colour depending on blood sugar levels.

The SKIN dress project (also called the Bubelle blush
dress) uses a similar principle. Combining LED projectors and glass fibre rods, this dress billows out from its
wearer as a light bubble. The inside layer is attuned to
the body’s state, and projects changes in emotion to
the outer layer, which illuminates in different patterns.
Although it looks the same for everyone upon purchase,
it will be unique to each buyer as it responds differently
to each individual wearer.
The Fractal project lies somewhere between clothing
and jewelry. Resembling a set of crystals that can snake
around your arm, torso, or leg, it uses information about
your movement, excitement, and the proximity of others
around you to change how it lights up. In the demonstration video, a woman supposedly gets angry (she yells
out and her breathing quickens) and the crystals begin
to activate in a disorganized light show. As soon as she
calms her breathing, the crystals activate less frequently
and soon shut off altogether.
The VIBE necklace looks much plainer than the
Bubelle dress or the Fractal jewelry, as it is a simple
square that hangs around one’s neck. By combining conductive ink and textile sensors, it’s also able to detect the
wearer’s emotions. However, it doesn’t just show them
through a change in colour—it can communicate your
emotional state to other people wearing the device.
Philips describes this as a “shift from ‘intelligent’ to
‘sensitive’ products and technologies.” Another technology is more than just a pilot, and is currently in the
research phase. McRae and colleague Sheref Mansy
are developing what they have called a “swallowable
parfum.” This is a pill that contains molecules that mimic
our natural fat molecules, which get broken down and
released in our body by specific enzymes. The pill uses
these enzymes to break down its own larger molecules
into fragrant molecules, which can be sweated through
and left on the skin’s surface. As McRae explains in a
press release, “the potency of scent is determined by
each individual’s acclimatization to temperature, stress,
exercise, or sexual arousal.” She goes on to say that
the perfume “enables human skin to emit a genetically
unique scent about who we are, and how we perform
our identities.”
n a way, these technologies all seem so far away that
it’s hard to imagine a world of people dressed in abstract costumes constantly changing colour based on

emotion—but technology is advancing fast. As a kid, I
remember thinking about how cool it would be to have
a videophone, so that I could see the person I was talking to. When I was a pre-teen, MSN Messenger added
a webcam chat component, but I wasn’t necessarily surprised or excited; somehow, it felt natural. When Skype
was introduced I was even less interested—it was the
same thing MSN Messenger offered me. But every
now and then, when I watch my grandmother talking to
relatives living in Israel on Skype for free, I realize how
advanced technology has become in such a short time,
and realize how little amazement I have actually felt.
But is this idea of binding technology to biology going
a little too far? Sometimes I find keeping my true feelings
private to be a wise decision. Maybe the excitement I
feel when I see my best friend’s boyfriend is not something I want to advertise to the world, maybe displaying the fear I feel when I raise my hand to speak up in
class will not motivate me to speak up more often, and
maybe I don’t want my dress to make it obvious that “I’m
fine” is a blatant lie. At the same time, being more honest
with our emotions could be a good thing. Maybe it will
eliminate those thoughts of “I wonder if she likes me,” or
spark the kind of honest conversation we really should
be having with each other if things aren’t fine. Maybe it
will allow people to connect like never before.
We are already connected to others through technology—constantly updating our Facebook and Twitter
accounts, always texting and calling on our cell phones—
but we can choose to keep some parts of ourselves
hidden. Perhaps in the future, self-expression will involve
being comfortable enough to express every part of ourselves, even those emotions we usually try to hide. If
it does, such technologies will definitely bring a whole
new meaning to the question: “What do your clothes say
about you?”

13

BLAC TO
TH FUTUR
AFROFUTURISM & RESISTANCE

BY MUNA MIRE
ART BY WENTING LI

A

frofuturism is making a
comeback. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, it`s
exactly what it sounds like.
It was first coined in 1995
by Mark Dery who defined it as “speculative fiction that treats African American themes and
addresses African American concerns in the
context of 20th century technoculture—and,
more generally, African American signification
that appropriates images of technology and
a prosthetically enhanced future.” Essentially,
Afrofuturism is an emergent aesthetic motif
and a way of looking at the cultural products
of Africans in the New World. It concerns itself
with the dilemmas faced by people of colour
today, as well as the historical legacies of
slavery, colonization, and forced migration—
sometimes referred to as the “founding trau-

14

mas” of the genre. Often, Afrofuturism allows
the African American subject consuming the
music, literature, or art of the genre to reimagine and reconstitute non-Occidental cosmologies and histories that are routinely excised
from a whitewashed historical narrative. But
the Afrofuturist does not limit themselves to
the past—one of the key tropes of the genre
is that it engages the potential that the future
holds by mapping out aspirations for the utopian project. Another key trope involves the
use of the alien as a symbol for the ‘Other.’
This not only highlights the tensions inherent
in being present in a racialized body in the
Western world, it also allows the genre to explore the setting of outer space—where the
alien is Other, the future of technoscience is
here and visions of utopia and harmony are
interspersed with images from non-Occidental
cosmologies. Afrofuturism is a project that si-

multaneously reclaims the past and announces
bold hopes for the future.
I recently had the pleasure of delving into
the genre for myself. I came across a playlist put together by King Britt, a DJ who first
gained fame touring in the 1990s with alternative hip hop group Digable Planets. Britt,
who has the distinction of being the first ever
DJ to receive a fellowship from the Pew Center
for Arts & Heritage, was commissioned as part
of an incredible online music project called
Noise From The 18th Floor to curate a playlist of his choosing. Each program in the series
is curated by what Director of Exhibitions at
the Pew Center Paula Marincola calls a “local
music expert” representing a specific genre.
Britt, who is well known for his contributions
to dance music, hip hop, broken beat, nu jazz,
and funk, chose to mix and create an Afrofuturist playlist. The music of Afrofuturism, which

has its roots in the celestial compositions and remain present. The historical weight of the
space-themed mythoi of 1970s giants like “founding traumas” of slavery, forced migraSun-Ra and the Intergalactic Infinity Arkes- tion, and colonialism has not been relieved—
tra and Parliament Funkadelic, was influential rather, the opposite. People of colour conenough to Britt for him to want to pay sonic tinue to live with these painful legacies and
tribute to the genre. And boy, did Britt de- their consequences every day. The music of
liver the goods. The hour-and-a-half long Afrofuturism does the work of lifting
playlist covers the music made from the inception of the genre in the 1970s all the way
up to current music that qualifies as Afrofuturist. It includes everything from Miles Davis
and Herbie Hancock to Common and Flying
Lotus. Afrofuturism is a genre that is particularly informative about the Black experience,
especially when you look at the music. It’s
interesting that what Britt calls the “sonic People of colour continue to Live
with these painful legacies and
journey” the listener embarks on when listentheir consequences everying to the playlist can span seven decades,
day. The music of Afrofuyet still present the listener with a set of unified aesthetic conventions and ideological
turism does the work of
concerns that have remained fixed over time.
lifting these burdens
While there have been superficial changes
for the listener - it
made to the music of Afrofuturism over time,
is a way to escape.
the core concerns of the genre have stayed
the same. This makes one wonder—are the is- these burdens—for the listenerit is a way to
sues that necessitated the birth of the genre escape. Going on a sonic journey to the outstill germane to the Black experience today? er reaches of the universe is a way of comThe answer is yes. The need for the genre ing home when the listener may be fatigued
has not gone away. The conditions that ne- from feeling like a stranger or an alien on
cessitated its arrival have not changed sig- their own home planet. The Afrofuturist mennificantly enough to render the imaginings of tality itself is about being on a different freAfrofuturism obsolete. Africans of the New quency from everyone and everything else
World still dream of life free of pernicious present in this reality, this dimension, or at
systemic and interpersonal racism—so prac- this time.
titioners of the genre still see themselves as
While the historical contexts that gave
aliens, outsiders, or Others. The imperialist, birth to Afrofuturism have not changed sigand colonialist narratives that drive the need nificantly, contemporary artists have still
for people of colour to rewrite and reimagine found ways of making the genre their own. In
their histories, genealogies, and cosmologies her stunning debut EP Metropolis: Suite I (The

Chase), Janelle Monae rewrites Fritz Lang’s
science fiction film classic Metropolis, casting
herself as an android charged with saving
a severely socially stratified dystopic society
from itself. Other artists have opted not to
do explicit concept albums, instead marrying
their musical sound to a dreamy, extraterrestrial sound. Artist and producer Flying Lotus—great nephew to the late Alice Coltrane
whose music is also included in King Britt’s
Afrofuturism playlist—recently released his
2012 album Until The Quiet Comes to widespread critical acclaim. The generational shift
between Coltrane’s music and the music her
great-nephew makes is tangible, but it is also
clear that Flying Lotus was influenced by the
dreamy soundscapes of Coltrane’s time. It is
easy to see continuity not just between the
tropes and ideas pursued in the music of
the genre, but in the actual sonic quality of
the music itself—the reverb, the sampling of
older music, the layering of sound, and the
use of African percussion. Indeed, contemporary practitioners of Afrofuturism often go
out of their way to pay tribute to the music that founded the genre. Today, the music
of Afrofuturism is increasingly popular, even
pushing into the mainstream. With artists like
OutKast, Actress, Shabazz Palaces, THEESatisfaction, Ras G, and Bonobo leading the
current iteration of the genre, it is clear that
Afrofuturism is here to stay.

15

Assimilate!
Assimilate!

OF THE FAKE
GEEK GIRL!
By Emily Pollock

S

everal recent diatribes about the myth of the “Fake
Geek Girl” have dragged the fraught intersection
of feminism and geek culture into the public eye. For
those of you lucky enough not to have read about this phenomenon, Fake Geek Girls are the biggest non-existent
threat facing the geek community today. Basically, it’s when
attractive girls pretend to be into some aspect of geek subculture in order to get attention. Apparently, the popularity
of what used to be Pure Nerd Culture has drawn these evil
succubi into conventions and comic book shops to feast on
the attention of helpless geeks.
The “Idiot Nerd Girl” meme, featuring a black-framed
glasses-wearing girl who mixes up geek culture references,
has been fairly popular for about a year. But recent articles
about this phenomenon have dragged it back into the public eye. Joe Peacock, blogger and self-identified Emperor of
Geek Island, wrote an article for CNN about how furious
the prospect of attractive women infiltrating his fandom conventions (for all the wrong reasons, dammit!) makes him. He’s
careful to say that he knows pretty geeks who are actually Real Geek Girls, but that makes his claims even more
problematic. Peacock is assuming that he’s the only person
qualified to give out the cards of Real Geekdom—by having
some kind of superpower that allows him to look into the
hearts of geeks to see if their motives are pure. Joe, you’re a
grumpy writer, not the fucking Mirror of Erised.
And then he goes and demolishes any possible credibility with some truly obtuse lines about these women, such
as, “They’re a ‘6’ in the real world, but when they put on a
Batman shirt and head to the local fandom convention du
jour, they instantly become a ‘9’.” No amount of “some of my
best friends are women” can make up for the fact that he’s
an adult who thinks he can put a number value on other
people’s attractiveness. The real kicker of the article is when
Peacock, trying to define the essence of a Fake Geek Girl,
says, “I’m talking about an attention addict trying to satisfy
her ego…by infiltrating a community to seek the attention of
guys she wouldn’t give the time of day on the street” (italics mine). Oh, I get it! These girls have committed the serious crime of being both attractive and unavailable! So the
real test of whether someone is a Real Geek Girl or not is
whether they will sleep with you?

16

Here’s the thing—it’s not just outright misogynists saying this. People like Tony Harris—a comic book artist who
recently wrote a Facebook post about his hatred of Fake
Geek Girls that sounded like he was drunk and typing with
his face—hold attitudes towards women that are disturbing.
But Peacock has written other articles decrying sexism in the
media, so perhaps he doesn’t have a clue that what he’s
saying is problematic. Female geeks have also hopped on
the bandwagon with depressing enthusiasm and have declared, like Tara Tiger Brown in her article for Forbes, that
“Pretentious females who have labeled themselves as a
‘geek girl’ figured out that guys will pay a lot of attention
to them if they proclaim they are reading comics or playing
video games.”
These people don’t think of themselves as sexists, but
what they’re saying is that a woman has to go through some
sort of geekiness litmus test to prove she isn’t “just in it to get
guys”. It’s also a way of pitting “attractive” women (who are
usually the targets of this label) against “unattractive” women
(who are generally assumed to be Real Geeks). But even
being seen as “unattractive” isn’t enough to spare women
from sexism—just witness the brain-meltingly awful comments
about plus-sized women who dare to dress up as their favourite characters at conventions.
There must be something in the waters of geek culture
that encourages biases against women and minorities. Female cosplayers—those who dress up as favourite characters at fan conventions—commonly face harassment. And
people who take on this culture of entitlement tend to be
ostracized. When Anita Sarkeesian started raising money
for a series of short videos on sexist conventions used in
video games, the worst elements of the Internet responded
with death and rape threats. Despite this, most geeks pride
their cultural sphere as being more progressive than that of
popular culture. Sexism in geek culture is like The Matrix—impossible to pick up on until we’re forced to look at ourselves
from the outside.
But what if I told you that geek culture is far poorer when
half its potential members feel that they aren’t allowed into
the clubhouse? I know what it’s like to love a fandom like
crazy. I spent my summers as a kid creating elaborate maps
of Tolkien-rip-off worlds and made a scrapbook of every

piece of news that I found about Return of the King when it
came out in theatres, because I wanted to be a part of that
world. So what I don’t understand about this Fake Geek
Girl label is why you would want to drive away people
who want to geek out with you. The best part about being
a geek is sharing it with others, whether you’re watching the
Lord of the Rings movies for 12 hours straight with friends,
forcing your Discworld books on your siblings, or debating
possible ways that (spoiler alert!) Sherlock could have faked
his death in the last episode.
The backlash against Peacock’s article demonstrates the
blossoming of geek feminism online. John Scalzi, the president
of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, wrote
a scathing piece about the elitism and sexism implicit in Peacock’s piece—but it’s only one among many pieces written
by passionate geeks who don’t believe that shutting out the
female demographic should be the future of geek fandom.
Geek feminism has become a greater subset of the geek
population, and sites like Mary Sue, Geek Feminism Wiki,
and even the Geek Feminism Subreddit have created a
feminist sphere for talking about geek culture. These corners
of the Internet have become a haven for geek women and
feminists who don’t necessarily want to put themselves out
there at conventions but have their own cool ideas about
topics like objectification in video games. One such project,
The Hawkeye Initiative, pokes fun at the impossible poses
that female superheroes are drawn in by drawing a male
superhero, Hawkeye, in the same pose. Initially suggested
by the Tumblr-user “gingerhaze”, the idea has gained massive momentum in the last few months, flooding Tumblr with
hilarious copies.
For geek feminists, the Internet is a double-edged sword.
Although it’s a place where misogynists can find an echo
chamber that confirms their views, it’s also a tool that facilitates people getting together to discuss their weirdness in a
positive way, without resorting to tired tropes like the Fake
Geek Girl. But for the Internet to be a launching pad for
inclusive visions of geekery, we need to give up on the idea
that geekdom needs a Gandalf the Grey.
Everyone should be able to pass.

All the while you’re
standing still, wondering, what am I to do?
Well, so was Achilles.

By Stephen Michell

A TWEEt For posterity
#iWillHaveBeen
That, I think, is as much as I can say.
Is the notion of the “future” frightening? The future is
choices; choices are right and wrong; wrong choices are
pain; right choices are less pain. This is life. The future, ultimately, is that which succeeds this. It is not the dark night
that scared young Nick Adams, but the looming future, as
he “realized that some day he must die”.
But think—
Swift of foot Achilles: he could trade his young life for
glory and fame, or return home to live and die privately,
years later, remembered by only a few. This is the dilemma. How shall my life be spent? Shall the whole world remember my name, or will it be written only in the diaries
of my grandchildren?
It seems a lot to think about at this moment; still a
student, early 20s, life burgeoning. To think of death is
strange and pointless. I am not suggesting we think about
death, but rather that we consider LIFE! It is everywhere,
and always we are trying to live it—
Notice: you are a being of consequence, your actions
cause reactions, your daily decisions transform wicked
fast into weeks, months, even years, faster now—four
years have passed, graduated, done, dead—slow down,
we forgot to think.
Now is precisely the moment for thinking. The actions
of these precious years, so ardently referred to by our
parents as our youth, will drastically affect our futures. But
look! Already the future is happening, all around us, all
the time, advancing to the tick of the clock.
Your best friend is now engaged, your brother is mov-

ing to California for a job, an old high school acquaintance has posted 16 photos of his newborn baby girl, that
musician from your fourth year seminar has suggested
you “Like” her new band’s page, and your younger sister’s poetry, which was once written only for fun, is now
appearing in The Malahat Review. All the while you’re
standing still, wondering, what am I to do?
Well, so was Achilles.
Let your wayward thoughts guide you. Ralph Waldo
Emerson said that the genius is the person who believes
truly in his or her own thought: “Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense.” The bigness
or smallness of your life depends not on the grand total of your achievements, but on your engagement with
your own thought in the present moment—which defines
your existence in the future. Emerson’s genius is wonderful
precisely because it exists at the moment when present
realizes future.
You are trying to live.
Consider Facebook and Twitter: what would Emerson
think of “Like” buttons and Tweets? Would he say, “Yes!
The culmination of human genius!” Or would he see social
reliance? We are trying to live, but does it not seem that
with each update and comment, we are actually trying
to prove to each other that we are alive? We seem to
demand an acknowledgment of our existence from the
larger social reality—“Here, I have an idea!” Not necessarily to think, but to have our ability for thought recognized by the multitudes.
My conflict with modern social media stems, I think,
from a natural conservatism that plagues the mind when
it imagines a future it does not understand. But tonight,

we are young! I must appreciate the changes of time,
the mother of that incessant daemon called the Future. I
must think—
For instance, modern social media has in some ways
solved the Achilles crisis. The most petite life can now also
be the grandest! A quiet grandfather will die today. Tomorrow his grandchild will write a status update commemorating the glory that was his little life—and the whole
world will have the ability to read it. If only Achilles had
had that option, the towers of Troy might still be standing.
This must be a humanist victory. Above all, modern social
media will inform future historians that the humans of the
21st century enjoyed making friends. I like that.
A friend recently gave me a collection of William Saroyan’s short stories, in the preface of which Saroyan offers
some fine advice: “Try to learn to breathe deeply, really
to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep, really
to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive, with
all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell, and
when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive.
You will be dead soon enough.”
I would add only that you should think about the people who are important to your present, the friends who
make you good in the ever-occurring future. Then try your
best to love them. Because in the end, when it comes—as
it will to all of us—whether we are big or small at the close
will be determined not by a stream of comments, not by a
Tweet, not by a dedicatory Facebook page, but by those
close few whom we have known and loved well.
#theEnd

17

F

G
u
t
a
o
r
N
a
e
nteed
r
u
tu

By Amanda Aziz

18

ing the best in our chosen field. So we worry
and pull out our hair over what we need to
decide on for the future (and we have to decide now, apparently). If we fail to make a
decision on time, we’ll fall behind in university.
And if we fall behind in university, then we
won’t get into grad school, and if we don’t
get into grad school or get that internship,
then we won’t get our career of choice, and
if we don’t get our career of choice, then
blah blah blah.
And the anxiety doesn’t stop there: while
everyone else is climbing that ladder or
smoothly sailing on their journey to becoming the greatest of I Don’t Care What, your
compass is broken. You have no plans, and
you don’t know where to start. And to make
things worse, if you don’t start perfecting
your craft now, then one, two, three, four,
five, your time is up and someone else has
beaten you in the rat race. Except now you
can’t start because you’re plagued with the
plunging feeling you get when you realize
how far behind you are compared to everyone else who apparently planned their lives
the moment they were born. The “Oh god if I
don’t start now, start now and make a game
plan, then I am going to lose; no, I’m already
losing, I feel it, game over” type of feeling.
Game over.
Or not. It’s funny, this pressure and anxiety, because none of this competition will
matter in the future. I mean, you tell me all
about your future. Tell me about your dreams.
Tell me about your aspirations. Tell me your
five-year, 10-year, 15-year plans. Tell me all
about your future, because I like jokes. You,
me, those superhuman kids that I went to
school with and desperately wanted to shut
up, can’t control our future. Game plans, goal
charts, career maps, and everything you can
do to prevent the mishaps—are bullshit. The
future is uncontrollable.
People try so hard to map out their futures, thinking that they can outwit the inevitable. Yes, it’s true, some direction helps, but we
should be aware that the things we’re doing
now may or may not have any effect on our
future. When we put so much pressure into
planning out every little detail, and ponder
so much that we’re mentally scrapbooking
memories that haven’t even been made yet,
then we’re in for disappointment.

Our future is not guaranteed.
In high school, I didn’t know what I wanted
to do, but felt pressured to have my PhD before I turned 30. But now, I prefer the idea of
taking a few years off after I graduate from
university. Working and traveling, figuring out
what I really want to do, and maybe even
joining an organic farm volunteer program
to, perhaps, do beekeeping in a farm outside of Berlin. I just want to enjoy myself, and
take the most that I can out of the present.
What our generation needs to do is to
calm down, and realize that this is supposed
to happen: the not knowing, the lack of direction. And maybe, just maybe, we should
let our future play itself out—instead of planning out the future just focus on what is happening now. And the rest, well, who knows?
I’m currently in the middle of deciding what
I want to major in for my university career. I
have no clue what I want to do, but I know
that I want to do something in the creative
field. I’m just taking one step at a time because I know that if I pick out a game plan
and try to anticipate my life, my anxiety will
accumulate to a level so unbearable that I
might not even want to get out there and
make my future happen. And yes, I am still
scared as hell. But I’m okay with that. Some
fears are a necessity. And if you’re scared
too, let’s be scared together. Fuck mapping
out the future, because nothing ever goes
according to plan anyway. And who knows,
we both might just end up happily beekeeping in Berlin ever after.

Emily Pollock

I’m going to be turning 20 this summer.
I’m not going to be a teenager anymore.
I’m going to be turning 20. And the rat race
is going to begin.
Actually, no, the rat race has already
begun.
It started in high school, somewhere in between when everyone decided what career
they were going to embark on, and when
the top result for my Careers Assessment Test
was “beekeeper” (taxidermist came in as a
close second). Suddenly, in the middle of everyone’s adolescent years—when we were
all just getting the hang of the torture that
puberty had put our bodies through—the
thought of planning out the future began to
be a fun pasttime. Yeah, it was fun, all right.
The next thing I knew, I found myself (in
high school!) acquainted with people already studying for the LSATs, MCATs, and
GMATs. People who were making their art
portfolios, writing the next great piece of literature in the Western canon, and prepping
their speeches for the Nobel Peace Prize that
they would presumably be honoured with in
the future. On top of that, these kids—these
superhumans—were piling on internships seasonally. The real world was brought into high
school before we had even graduated.
The rat race started prematurely, and
I have yet to make my run. While those superhuman kids were off volunteering at a
university science lab to find the next cure
for multiple sclerosis, I was still stuck on how
the hell I got beekeeper as my ideal career
(what the fuck, Careers Assessment Test?). I
mean, I also participated in school clubs, but
everybody did. In a nutshell, while everyone
was getting a head start, and happened to
know where their towel was, I was sitting on
my ass being an awkward teenager who
probably left their towel in the school gymnasium’s changing room.
Mapping out the future was a thing. Planning was a hobby. Living in the future was
something someone of our generation would
do, all while trying to live in the present.
Being immersed in a super-competitive
environment has been stagnating for our
generation. Soon, finding a cure for a disease won’t be enough to be the greatest
anymore, and we are fixated on the toxic
idea that future success is dependent on be-

By JJ Brewis

Sarah Crawley

WHERE WE'RE GOING NEXT

O

ne of the first assignments I remember from elementary school was to draw what we imagined
the world would look like in the future. My classmates drew standard Jetsons-style bullshit like flying cars and
moon shoes (or world peace, which was thoughtful—albeit
naïve), but I drew my family smiling and laughing. Maybe it’s
because my parents fought a lot when I was a child. Perhaps
it’s because all I wanted in my future was harmony. It’s impossible for me to look back and talk to that six-year-old me
(though it’d be pretty cool if I could, and I’d tell him to skip the
whole high school goth thing), but I’d imagine it was about
wanting a somewhat attainable goal to come to fruition.
Any time humans predict or imagine what the future will
look like, it ends up looking like a failed version of the present or past, and is often hilarious or unfeasible, like the image of Marty McFly riding around on a hoverboard. Don’t
get me wrong, I love Back to the Future. But let’s be honest—when looking ahead, we often lose sight of what we
have now. After all, we as a human race have made some
pretty cool shit along the way: Pop Tarts, Space Mountain,
marriage equality. If I were an alien, I’d have a lot to write
home about.
It’s fun to dream and imagine and make predictions of
where our species will move next—so long as these anticipations are healthy and will not cause us distress if we
end up being off the mark. There’s a fine balance in wishing
for a prosperous tomorrow and actually making it happen.
Throughout my adolescence, I wanted to be many different
things when I grew up—an animator, a professional wrestler,
a singer. I never would have imagined I’d be in my late -20’s
and still a student, floundering in a sea of opportunity. But
hey—here I am, looking for ways to get my career, my heart,
and my goals back on the rails.
And maybe that’s okay, to fuck up along the way, to lose
sight of what you once wanted in exchange for having spontaneity. Because the 18-year-old versions of ourselves who
are told to pick a career path, spend the next four years
building their skill set and spending the rest of their life in that
niche are not really doing that anymore. And why should
they? Half the time these 22-year-old grads are unsatisfied
and end up doing the exact opposite anyway. Time away is
good for young people. For me, it involved travelling, switch-

ing my major and dropping out of school more times than
I’ve got fingers, and learning not to judge myself for getting a
little lost on my journey. Being forgiving with your deviations
is half the battle—the other half is fun.
It’s partially about our own decisions, and partially about
going with what the universe tells us to do and taking signs
from what is being dangled in front of our noses. Our futures
are a collaboration between premeditated plans and the
infiltration of our real lives. Learning that it’s okay to lose interest, to get pregnant, to go to rehab or to Scotland or wherever you need to go. I might kick myself about not having a
degree or a house or a French fucking bulldog by this point—
but I also know that I wouldn’t be who I am today without
the complete collection of experiences, good and bad, that

MANY PEOPLE ARE
HAUNTED BY THEIR
PAST, BUT I’M HAUNTED BY THE FUTURE.
THE SCARIEST SHIT IS
AHEAD OF ME.
I’ve gathered along the way. Hell, had I stuck to my original plans without deviating from them at all, lord knows if I
would even be here at all. Imagine if I hadn’t chased love to
Indiana, pissed in my ex-fiancé’s mouthwash, gotten that tattoo of a dagger? This character-building shit is what makes
the future fun: who knows what I’ll come up with next.
The thing about the future that we seldom realize is that
it never truly comes. We can tell ourselves that we will gorge
on food today and diet tomorrow. But when we wake up
the next day, it will be the new present, leaving the future
constantly bumped off by the now, hour by hour, moment
by moment.
Many people are haunted by their past, but I’m haunted
by the future. The scariest shit is ahead of me. The day I will
have to leave school forever to enter the “real world.” The
day I will have to explain a stupid mistake I made. The day
my hair thins out. The day my mom will die. The day I will do

the same.
It is confusing and challenging to keep up with the world
because we ultimately must react to what it gives us. The
way senior citizens view today’s technologies will be the
same way we will react when we are their age, unless we
learn from their ways and remember that when we were
young, progress was important in fostering our society, our
relationships and our futures.
The “future” is either a closed door or an open one— depending on how you look at it. People sometimes tell me that
I’m lucky for all the opportunities I get in life, and I want to tell
them that I’ve worked very hard for everything I have. And
most days, I wish I was further on in my life and career than
I am. But I remember that there’s a lot more of the future
than there is of the past, and I must spend my time wisely
to ensure that I’m navigating myself through a life that I can
ultimately look back upon and be proud of. Even though I
don’t believe in Heaven or God or any of that, I do like the
idea that when we’re done, we get a chance to look back
on the future that once was—and explore what moments in
life we had that were great.
If we keep telling ourselves to act tomorrow, we never will. We need to act in the present or else nothing will
change at all. So many people worry about what will happen tomorrow that they end up losing today.
The world shapeshifts. Who would have thought 100
years ago that it would be okay for two dudes to make out
on the street? Who would have thought even 20 years ago
that you would one day shop naked in bed? That’s kind of
the fun part of life, that progress propels us into the future
while we don’t even realize we are changing the world at
all. It’s only in looking to the past that we see all that we have
done, allowing us to think about the future and what possibilities it holds. Maybe the future isn’t scary at all. Maybe it’s
just an opportunity for more awesome things. There can only
be more new rides created at Disneyland, more progressive
thoughts than what we’ve seen in the past, and more opportunity for weird culinary fusions. You can’t take away the
past, but you can add to it. How fucking cool is that?